Mother Mason and her Gingerbread Men
by Ford.Ye.Fiji
Summary: The tentacle bashed the Doctor against the wall again. "DOCTOR! You HAVE too!" "No! I am NOT losing ANOTHER Pond!" What? Another? Who!" Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor who or the picture! The picture I saw and it inspired this fic.
1. The Tea Party

**A/N: I'm planning on making this fic a bit longer than the other ones. Hopefully. Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who.**

It was Christmas Eve and Jemima grinned excitedly at her grandmother.

"Mum got a new recipe for Gingerbread men! Do you think when Margo and Poppy come over can we make them? Please, please, please Grandmum?"

"Who's Poppy's Mum, dear?"

"Mrs. Shropshire, can we? I'll make you a cuppa of your favorite."

Grandmother Oswald gave her granddaughter a cheeky grin.

"You trying to bribe me Jemima Francis Oswald?"

"Maybe?"

"Good. No, less than I taught you. And, yes, your friends can make gingerbread men as long as your quiet."

Jemima nodded enthusiastically.

"How 'bout some jammy dodgers with my cuppa- eh?"

Jemima nodded again and raced about with the tea stuff. When Grandmother Oswald had settled in her afghan covered recliner with her tea in a flowered cup that was clutched in her old wrinkled hand, Jemima's friends were ringing the doorbell.

Grandmother Oswald chuckled as she heard their excited chattering. She settled in for a good long read of 'Persuasion.'

"Grandmum? What's um, genocince weed?"

"I don't know dear."

"It's called for Grandmum!"

And then the doorbell rang. "Answer it, Jemima!"

Jemima came back from the door with a box from the post. The slim brunette girl hugged her knitted tan shawl closer around her.

"Grandmum. Package."

Grandmother Oswald sighed and put her book and tea down. She took the package and opened it carefully and slowly. Jemima squealed when she saw the contents.

"Genocince weed! Like on the box!" "Thank you Grandmum!"

Jemima kissed her Grandmum on the cheek, grabbed the weed, and ran back to the kitchen and her giggling friends. Blond-haired Poppy and the brunette with the ponytail, must be Margo, smiled at Grandmother Oswald from the kitchen. Grandmother Oswald went back to her reading.

An hour later a ding and excited giggling emitted from the kitchen. Grandmother Oswald smiled.

"Look at mine! Look at mine!" laughed Margo.

And then Grandmother Oswald heard screaming.

She looked at the kitchen and fumbled for her spectacles on a chain around her neck.

"Jemima?"

She stood up and clutched her pale pink shawl closer around her frail body. She stepped closer to the door and her hand that was clutching her cane was tense and white. She almost sighed in relief when Jemima stepped from the door. Almost.

Her mouth opened in horror when passing the tan shawl and white and black striped shirt she saw Jemima's face. Instead of her pretty features she saw a gingerbread man's crudely drawn on face. It was grotesque seeing the horridly grinning cookie. She could see the ginger turning into soft skin at the ears and were the hair began.

In Jemima's hands was a gingerbread man. And instead of a gingerbread man's face was Jemima's. Jemima was crying but her words were soundless.

Poppy and Margo came in behind Jemima. They were the same. Grandmother Oswald screamed.

**A/N: I HIGHLY suggest watching the series five Doctor Who intro before the next chapter when the next chapter is up. It would give the story a more episodic feel.**


	2. Aswan Oswald

**A/N: This is a really big chapter for me. Yay! Oh, and please I would LOVE reviews! I'm not going to say 'I won't post more chapters until I get reviews.' I don't do that, but it would be nice to have some feedback. Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who**

The Doctor danced around the console as the TARDIS shook ferociously.

"Doctor! Where are we going?"

"Well, Amelia, it was to go to visit Ginger, one of the most brilliant planets around, only ginger people there and they have a HUGE obsession with the color red but the TARDIS seems to want to go somewhere else!"

He pulled a green lever and a spark of electricity spiked through him.

"Doctor!"

The Doctor fell backwards and sucked his red fingers.

"Doctor! You're hair!"

The Doctor looked up at the top of his once floppy hair. It was now sticking up in the most comical fashion.

"What'd you do that for?"

He whined petulantly at the TARDIS. He started digging in his pockets for something.

"Doctor? Aren't you flying the TARDIS?"

"Well, quite obviously, she wants to be left alone."

More electricity zigzagged across the console. After a yo-yo, a toothbrush, a apple (which he threw away), a weird alien knick-knack, a small history book, a spare bow tie (you can never have to many bow ties) he found what he was looking for.

"Ha! A destaticfying comb!"

Amelia looked at it curiously as he ran it through his hair which immediately returned to its normal floppy status. Amelia rolled her eyes and then looked around.

"Doctor! We've landed!"

"Hmm? Oh, yes. We have. I'll try to get us to Ginger and-"

"Doctor! Can't we just explore for five minutes? Five?"

She gave him big pleading eyes.

"Fine. But, I'm coming with you. No exceptions, you'll get into trouble otherwise."

Amelia groaned. She threw open the doors right as the Doctor said, "Wait! This is London!"

It was in fact modern day London for Amy. Amy pouted.

"Aw. What year is it Doctor?"

The Doctor stepped out and sniffed the air. Amy looked at the newspaper stand picked one up and flashed the man a winning smile. The man tipped his cap and, fingering his mustache, turned back to his other customer.

"It's the day before I left. Luckily, I'm not in London I'm out in the country!"

The Doctor was turning around and around sniffing the air.

"Look at this paper. Ha! Some person saw mutant gingerbread men. Some people are cr-"

The Doctor snatched the paper from her hands and scanned it.

"Pond. Time to go catch some Gingerbread men!"

"What? Doctor, you don't actually believe this, do you?"

"Yep. Come along, Pond!"

Amy groaned and ran after him. Luckily, the address was not far away. The Doctor knocked on the door and somebody yelled, "Go away! I'm not mad and no, I don't know where they went!"

"Please! We're here to discuss your claim!"

"No!"

The Doctor sighed and soniced the door and the purple door opened with a creak.

"Oi!"

The Doctor stepped into the room warily and looked around. A old woman with white hair was sitting in the living room a battered cane on her lap.

"Uh, Miss Oswald, I'm the Inspector of Deranged Gingerbread Men, the IDGM."

The Doctor said flashing his physic paper at her. The lady blinked.

"I'm Miss Oswald. Who're you?"

"The Doctor. Now please describe exactly what transpired on..."

He looked at the newspapers again.

"That day."

"Well, my granddaughter and two of her friends were making a new recipe their Mum had found them on Gingerbread men. And they started screaming once they were done and they came out of the kitchen. They had gingerbread men faces and they were holding gingerbread bodies and my poor Jemima was on one them and they were crying and- and I couldn't help them!"

Amy was patting the woman's hand comfortingly. The Doctor however was scanning the room with his sonic.

"I fainted and- and when I woke up they were gone. Peoples saying tha- tha I had a stroke or something! But no one can explain where Jemima and Poppy and Margo are."

The Doctor squinted at Miss Oswald and then he grabbed her cane.

"Hey! What're you doing?"

The Doctor sniffed it completely ignoring her.

"What's he doing?"

Miss Oswald yelled at Amy.

"Um? I dunno."

Then he licked it. Miss Oswald decided she had enough.

"Ok! That's it!"

She yanked her cane from his grasp and yelled at him, "Git out! I don't need your tomfoolery! Git out!"

The Doctor decided it was time to exit the premises. When they had run an entire block away the Doctor stopped.

"Well, did you find anything?"

"Yes." The Doctor said not even breathing hard.

"Genocince weed. Traces of it everywhere. Somehow they got hold of Genocince weed!"

"What's that?"

"Well, there was a race of life forms that lived here awhile back. Elizabeth the I discovered them and then they tried taking over once before and oh! Exhausting! The Genocince weed I destroyed and then of course the Genocince weed was made extinct. Elizabeth the I, now, sh-"

"Doctor! One, you haven't yet told me what Genocince weed does and two, how did Genocince weed become extinct?"

"Genocince weed became extinct when the only world it grew on was destroyed."

"What world?"

"Irrelevant."

Amy raised an eyebrow skeptically. "That's not irrelevant. That world could give us a hint of the history of the weed and/or cures."

"I would know any and all cures. And there aren't. Anyway! Genocince weed contains a ridiculous amount of time energy, which, can make Gingerbread men sentient. There's something particular about the gingerbread men other than Genocince weed that when combined with the weed makes them sentient. Now, the weed also when used properly can keep the mind from fusing with the body and initiating a body switch when heated to the proper temperature. So, someone on purpose has been selling these instructions. But where did that Oswald woman get Genocince weed?"

"You could ask her."

The Doctor and Amy whirled around. The Oswald woman was a few feet from them and looking at them suspiciously.

"How did the bloke know all that?"

Amelia sniggered at the confused look on the Doctor's face.

"Bloke? Are you talking about me?!"

"It's complicated. How about a trade? Question for a question?"

"Amelia!"

"I'll go first. Where'd you get the Genocince weed?"

"Package. Delivered right when they needed it. No return address or anything. I didn't question it because I didn't pay attention to it till... After."

"A-ha! Low level perception field! I knew it!"

"My turn." Oswald said pointedly.

"Who are you really? That paper? It was blank."

The Doctor did a double take and his eyes widened. "This is Amelia Pond and I'm the Doctor. Who're YOU really? Not everyone can see through Physic paper. Especially not humans who don't travel with me."

"I'm human! I'm Aswan Oswald!"

The Doctor backed into Amelia.

"Are you human?" Aswan asked curiously.

"I'm human. He's not. He's a whatcha call it?"

"T- Timelord." He suddenly fumbled and produced his Sonic Screwdriver. He scanned Aswan Oswald.

"Timelord? An alien?"

"And he's 908!"

"He's no more than twenty by the likes of it!"

"Amelia! Shush!"

He took her by the arm leaving the old Aswan Oswald standing in bewilderment on the pavement.

"Amelia! You should be more careful! You don't tell just anyone!"

"Why not? You told a seven year girl!"

"That was different!"

Aswan Oswald called out, "May I come with you? To look for Jemima and Margo and Poppy I mean."

The Doctor turned around with a swirl, eyed her, and then waved his sonic around hesitantly.

"Ok."

The old woman smiled.

The Doctor turned back to Amy.

"Pond. Be careful. I don't quite trust her and..."

"And what, Doctor?"

"Nothing. Nothing."

The Doctor turned his sonic around in the air.

"This way!" He started off in another direction.

Amelia held her arm out to the old woman, and Aswan Oswald took the proffered arm gratefully and leaned on her stick.

"What's that?"

"It's a Sonic Screwdriver. I don't know what it does in particular."

They walked on the Doctor leading. Amy looked to her right on the street and Aswan Oswald flashed green and her face changed huge and scaly for a second.

Amelia did not notice and neither did the Doctor.


	3. She sits on a throne of lies!

**Sorry! This is a short chapter. I won't be able to update again until April 5th. :( No wifi. I hope what little readers I have enjoy!**

The Sonic led them to an old abandoned schoolhouse. The place was rotting and it's timbers creaked. The Doctor pushed against the door but it was locked.

"This is wood. I can't open it." He said frustratedly.

Aswan looked around. "Couldn't you just... I don't know... Kick it in?"

"He'd probably break his leg doing that." Amy giggled.

"I would not!" The Doctor said indignantly.

He scanned the door and than looked at the readings on his sonic suspiciously. Aswan walked to the door and looked all over it. She moved his fingers looking for weak spots and her other hand was pressed to the wall. She concentrated and then tried the knob. It opened.

"See? It's unlocked." Amy smirked at the Doctor and followed Aswan in. The Doctor scanned the door. His face lit up and then he followed them.

"Ah, there's nobody here." Aswan said looking around.

The Doctor turned and looked at her. "Except for you."

"Me? What?"

"The readings on you... Have been weird. More, like alien."

"I- I don't what your talking about!" Aswan scoffed.

"Really? The creatures attacked Aswan. Why would they leave Aswan there? She has proof of their existence. Ah, of course because you need her."

"What- I don't-"

The Doctor was pacing back and forth in his way where he's really just thinking aloud.

"Also how come, your hand can open the door, which had a deadlock seal? It recognized your handprint. You need the REAL Aswan Oswald not to have disappeared. As in, you REALLY like perception fields. Rosanna Calvarri, a Saturnynian, used them a lot. She didn't know names, careless, killed innocent people, and there's another similarity to you."

"Saturnynian? They're extinct."

The Doctor smiled painfully. "Ah, I believe that was my fault. But, the same thing about you and her is that I'm going to defeat you."

He fired a beam of the sonic at her right hip. Aswan shrieked. Something fizzed and popped and then the Aswan shimmered and revealed...

**A/N: Sorry! Couldn't resist. ;D Please REVEIW! **


	4. NEVER underestimate the Doctor

**A/N: Hi! I managed to find wifi for a quick update and to publish another story! I know, I just saw Let's Kill Hitlar. I am so behind. Anyway, there is some violence in this chapter so, if that bothers you skip to ****_'half an hour later' _****Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who. **

_He fired a beam of the sonic at her right hip. Aswan shrieked. Something fizzed and popped and then Aswan shimmered and revealed..._

A great big scaly thing with sharp teeth. It shrieked and lunged at the Doctor. Big knobby tentacles lashed out and hit the narrow walls. The building shook.

"Uh-oh! Amy, RUN!"

He grabbed her hand and pulled. But then a tentacle latched onto Amy's ankle and whipped her backward. "No!"

He ran forward and managed to grab Amelia's hand.

"Doctor! Watch out!"

The Doctor managed to dodge the first tentacle but not the second. It slammed him painfully against the wall. He did not let go of Amelia's hand. The creature shrieked and slammed the Doctor across the chest again and then a third time. Amy heard a crack that time and the Doctor cried out.

"Doctor, just let me go!"

The other knobby limbs were banging against the walls and ceiling bringing dust down on their heads.

"Doctor! You have too! It'll bring down the school!"

The tentacle bashed the Doctor against the wall again.

"DOCTOR! You HAVE too!"

"No! I am NOT losing ANOTHER Pond!"

"What? Another? Who?!"

The Doctor was turning white from the effort of standing. Normally Amy would have thanked heaven that the other tentacles had been stuck against the side of the hulking body of what used to be 'Aswan' but it was either the Doctor being carried or repeatedly slammed against a wall until he died.

"I'm sorry Doctor!"

"No! No! Amelia! No!"

Amelia was sure she had just seen a tear.

"I'm sorry." And then, she let go.

The beast withdrew leaving the shaking Doctor on the floor. He rolled over onto his back and looked at his shirt. It was starting to turn red. A great big splotch. He had to enter a healing coma NOW or else he would bleed out. But, if he did, Amy would be gone. It was to late though, and his eyelids drifted shut.

Half-hour later.

The Doctor jerked awake and stood up. His ripped open his shirt to reveal a sloppily stitched wound. He hadn't given it enough time to heal properly but he didn't care. He needed to find Amelia.

He stood up and leaned on the wall easily following the slimy footprints as he buttoned up his shirt. The creature had not left the building. A metal door stood between him and his goal.

The Doctor smiled, "Now, you're talking." He said gleefully and soniced the door.

The door opened with a creak and he peaked in. Someone had turned this part of the school into a greenhouse with alien plants. He heard snuffling and he thought he saw the beast. But someone spoke.

"Ah, Doctor. It appears you had a run in with my Onlin." He whirled around and there stood a Silurian.

"Oh, hello. What's your name?"

"Kava. I am the keeper of this place."

"Ah, you supplied the Genocince Weed didn't you."

"Yes, on my recipes I am simply Mother Mason. Catchy, don't you think?"

"Where are the girls?"

"Oh, they're fine. I'm going to be getting a lot more of them soon and then I can fulfill my mission!"

"Taking over the world I'm guessing. Yep. Just one more thing. Where. Is. Amelia?"

"The ginger?"

"Yes."

"Well, she's about to be made into some very fine GINGERbread. Ha! That was a wonderful pun!"

The Doctor turned and ran smack into what Mother Mason had called the Onlin. He knew this beast now that he remembered the name.

"Uh-oh."

The Online grabbed the Doctor with its knobby tentacles and followed Mother Mason out of the greenhouse and into a (thankfully) wider, taller, and much more stable corridor. He saw people making gingerbread men and sticking Genocince weed in them. And then, he saw Amelia.

She was strapped to a slanted table, a bloody gash on her forehead. Her eyelids fluttered when Mother Mason spoke.

"Ah little... Amelia, you said? Amelia! Wake up!"

Amelia didn't move.

"I know you're awake!"

Mother Mason slapped her.

"Don't. You. Touch. Her."

"I'm not frightened of you Doctor. I heard all the tales. Oncoming storm and all that. Just myth and legend. Stuff of legend, the great last Time Lord, fire, ice and rage, destroyer of worlds, centre of time, meh. All you are is madman with a big blue box and a bow tie."

"Bow ties are cool!"

"Bow ties went out of fashion years ago."

"Oi! Don't diss the bow tie!"

Amelia looked up. A big red angry mark was on her face and the Doctor darkened. Mother Mason smiled at her.

"Amelia, did you ever have a gingerbread man? Well, you're going to be able to get a taste of my new recipe!"

A person started walking holding out gingerly a strange glowing green gingerbread man. Amelia looked at the Doctor.

"Doctor! Don't let them! Help!"

She struggled against the bonds. Mother Mason looked back at the Doctor.

"The Doctor. Ha! Not so much after all."

The Doctor smiled.

"You underestimate me, Mother Mason."

And then the sonic was in his hand, he had snuck it out, and he pressed a button and a whine emitted from the room. All activity stopped as everything clutched their ears and then Amelia saw people who had the faces of gingerbread men screaming as their souls returned to their proper places. The cause of the change was the fact that the sonic had opened a portal on the far wall to a great red, orange, and brown rocky planet.

The glowing green Genocince weed was pulled back to its proper place in time and history on a planet that was forbidden to all. The Doctor had rewired the sonic to make a portal to a time-locked Gallifrey while wounded and trapped by a Onlin.

The portal snapped shut as if had never existed and the Onlin released the Doctor, who dropped to the ground. He soniced the bonds on Amy and he looked at the Mother Mason, her mouth was open in fear. His chest was bleeding again, but he didn't react in the slightest.

"Kava," he said coldly addressing her by her name, "Rule 1#, Never ever EVER underestimate The Doctor."

Kava backed up in fear. Her eyes shone with it.

"Y- you say that like you aren't him."

"Oh, I'm very much the Doctor. Just, I changed a little bit when you... Threatened Amy. Of course, I've threatened Amy, but I'm him. Can't change that."

The Doctor smiled and he flipped his sonic around.

"I can, however, change this sonic screwdriver to kill."

"Y- you wouldn't- the Doctor! He doesn't kill!"

"Oh, he does... Did. Didn't you hear them? The Daleks call me the Oncoming Storm, the destroyer of worlds, the herald of doom, and now, you've made me angry. Beside, I doubt the Doctor cares much at this moment. I can feel his rage and oh, it burns."

His lips curled into a vicious smile. Amy swallowed, very much frightened by her raggedy man.

"Oh, one more thing. Don't diss the bow tie."

Then he shot her with his sonic. Kava screamed her body surrounded with a brilliant red glow. Kava fell to the floor writhing in pain. Amelia sobbed. This was not her Doctor.

"DOCTOR!" She screamed. "Stop!"

The Doctor looked at her and his demeanor changed to horror. He dropped the sonic like it burned him and Mother Mason stopped thrashing.

"Oh, Rassilon. Oh... Amy! I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry."

He dropped to his knees.

"What have I done?"

He looked at Mother Mason in distress. He reached out to her, hesitated, stood up, and backed toward Amy.

"W- we should probably go."

His sonic was back in his pocket. He saw Amy's gash and reached toward it. Amelia flinched and backed away when he came close to her. The Doctor's eyes widened. He put his hand back and trudged into the corridor. Amy followed looking at the gasping lizard woman on the floor.

DWDWDWDWDWDWDW

The real grandmother was crying with joy as she hugged the three girls. She saw a man in a tweed jacket and bow tie walking down a corridor as a ginger haired girl followed.

"Who are you?" She shouted.

"Nobody, Aswan Oswald!" The man said.

The woman started and then shouted back, "My name is Oswin Oswald! Those stupid creatures heard wrong!" But the man was already gone.

**A/N: How's that for a surprise? Aswan IS Oswin. ;D**


	5. Epilogue

**A/N: Happy Easter! Hope you enjoy!**

After destroying the greenhouse and dressing the wound on his chest and Amy's head, the Doctor was back in the TARDIS poking, pressing and pulling things on the console.

Amy hugged herself.

"Where are we going?"

"Home. You need to go home."

Amelia looked down at her boots then strode toward the Doctor and slapped him. He flinched slightly still looking down.

"I'm not going home. And you, Doctor, that wasn't your fault. That wasn't you. That was the Dreamlord. And, I know you say he's you, but he's not."

The Doctor looked at her piercing her with a gaze so intense it pinned her to the floor.

"But, don't you see? That WAS me. You've never seen me... Angry beyond all things. Heedless of the consequences. Rash, stupid, dangerous. The Oncoming Storm. That- that was me! That's what the Daleks and the Cybermen fear! And, I just snapped and I let go and it felt WONDERFUL. But, it- I- I'm afraid. I'm afraid of what I am. What I've been, what I could become."

Amelia blinked. This was more than the Doctor ever told her.

The Doctor stared at the console of the TARDIS and Amelia stared at the Doctor for a long time.

Finally, she came to a decision.

She kissed the Doctor on the forehead. "Then don't be alone, promise me that, and then you won't be." She said very softly.

her footsteps padded away as she walked to her room in the TARDIS to lay down and think.

The Doctor sat on the ledge of his TARDIS with the doors open and looked at the stars and the TARDIS hummed him to sleep.

Amelia Pond found him that way an hour later. She sat beside him and fell asleep on his shoulder.

The Doctor and the girl who waited sat on the one who would always stay and slept under the stars for a long time.

**A/N: Yay! It's done! 'The one who would always stay' is the TARDIS, by the way. It makes sense if you think about it.**


End file.
